Unexplainable Connections
by notcarlsjr
Summary: Scott, Stiles and Allison sacrificed themselves to find the Nemeton, unaware of what the consequences would be. One of those consequences is Sophia McBride, a former friend of Scott and Stiles. After the Nemeton is activated, something is triggered inside of Sophia - almost like a direct psychic line to Scott and Stiles. Now the question is, how does Sophia fit into the mold?
1. the prologue

"Stiles?" Sophia McBride called out, brow furrowing as she saw her former friend in the otherwise empty high school hallway. She had snuck back into school to spend some time in the art studio to work on the different projects she had going for her art classes. Her teacher decided that it would be a good idea for the students to create a theme for each week and Sophia had been picked to go first. So Sophia had spent the evening in the studio trying to come up with ideas of what could be cool and interesting — trying to use the studio as inspiration, but she had come up empty.

Luckily, there was pretty much no security at the high school; they couldn't keep a night guard employed after everything that had been going on over the past year. So Sophia wasn't worried about getting caught as she left the studio, but she was surprised to see Stiles at the school. She rarely ever saw another student, let alone a former friend,

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Stiles ignored her question, walking away from her and for a split second, Sophia thought about just letting him do whatever he had come to do; it didn't concern her and obviously he didn't want her involved. But Sophia couldn't help but follow him.

Stiles was in his pjs, bare feet padding against the school floors as he stopped in front of an open classroom. Sophia crossed her arms over her chest and stepped closer to him, opening her mouth to call out to him again. But before she could say anything, Stiles stepped into the classroom. Walking up to the open door, Sophia peered inside to see that it looked like a tornado had ripped through the classroom,

"Woah." She breathed out, eyes traveling around the room and the destruction before settling on where Stiles stood.

In the middle of the classroom, there was a giant stump — like _giant_. Sophia couldn't even fathom how it got into the classroom, but it looked like it had made a home there, roots extending across the floors, traveling up the walls.

"Hey, man, maybe we should get out of here." Sophia said to Stiles, raising her voice slightly. Stiles ignored her, almost like he didn't even know she was there, and Sophia watched him reach out to the stump.

His fingers brushed against the against the wood for a brief moment. Sophia realized she was holding her breath, waiting for something — anything, to happen once his fingers connected with the wood. But nothing did.

Stiles went to pull his hand back from the stump when suddenly roots shot up around his hand, wrapping tightly around him and yanking it back down, pulling Stiles with.

Startling awake, Sophia shot up in bed, taking in a deep breath as she suddenly woke out of her dream. She blinked rapidly, trying to take in her surroundings as she calmed herself down. Her pineapple nightlight gave minimal light to the otherwise dark room, but Sophia glanced over to see the time displayed on her digital clock. It was almost four in the morning. Sophia took in a gulping breath as she pushed her covers off of herself, bringing her knees to her chest as she calmed down.

It had been such a vivid dream — everything about it felt real, even though it wasn't. Turning her head to the side, Sophia rested her cheek on her knees, eyes on her clock as she thought about her dream, specifically how Stiles had appeared. She hadn't ever had such a vivid dream involving Stiles before, especially after their friendship dissipated. Seeing him in her dream, plus the stump that grabbed him, left her with a funny feeling in her stomach.

Sophia reached for her phone from where it was charging on her nightstand. She unlocked it and pulled up a search engine page. Her fingers tapped against the screen as she Googled what it meant when you dreamt about a tree stump. Scrolling through the results, Sophia clicked on a random link, which brought her to a page where she skimmed a rather dull meaning about her dream. According to the website she clicked on, the stump represented that her attention was going to be called for in connection of unlocking an important message from her spirits. And since she saw the roots, it meant that there were many things she needed to discover in order to get a happy life.

Sighing, Sophia exited out of the app and went into her camera roll, going to one of her first albums back from when she had first gotten her phone. She hadn't looked at the album in years. but it was full of pictures of her and her friends from middle school. She swiped through them, knowing they mostly consisted of her, Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski. They were barely through puberty in most of the pictures but they were the most recent ones she had of her and the kid who appeared in her dream. Sophia smiled to herself at a few of them on the bus or at different school functions. There was a video towards the beginning of the camera roll that Sophia clicked on, turning the phone horizontal so the video filled the screen.

" _This is the first ever video on Fia's brand new phone!"_ Stiles's voice came from behind the camera as he zoomed in on Sophia's face. They were on the bus and the video shook with each bump the bus hit,

" _Please don't zoom in on my face_." Sophia heard herself as she covered her face with her hands, but she was laughing a bit.

" _Are you zooming in on her face?"_ The camera swung around suddenly to reveal a close up of Scott McCall's grinning face.

" _Yup. Getting reeaaaalll up close and personal."_ Stiles dragged out the word, moving the camera around as Scott laughed at him.

The phone was suddenly taken out of Stiles's hands and his face appeared on screen — or rather his nose, but the camera zoomed out to reveal his entire face and he gave whoever was holding the phone an unamused look as the camera moved around his face, both Sophia and Scott's laughs in the background. Sophia heard her voice, using a crappy Australian accent " _Oh well would you look what we've stumbled upon. The wild Stiles Stilinski traveling somewhere. I—oh!"_

The bus went over a rather nasty bump, causing Sophia to lose her balance and fall backwards onto the seat. Sophia watched the camera show the bus ceiling as she heard herself laughing, joined by the two boys as the bus driver's voice floated back, "And that's why we stay in our seats!" And then, the video abruptly ended.

Sophia turned her phone around in her hands, exiting out of the video and camera roll. As silly as the video was, she didn't feel like going down memory lane at four in the morning. Sophia may not have remembered when and how she became friends with the two boys — her mom would say that it was because they all were from single parent homes and only children, but Sophia certainly remembered when and how she stopped being friends with the boys. She plugged her phone back into the charger and let out a breath, extending her legs and glancing at her phone again.

Screwing her mouth to the side, Sophia got out of bed and went over to the far side of her room where her sketch books, paintbrushes and other various art supplies were scattered across her desk. She figured she was already up and there was no point in trying to go back to sleep before she had to wake up again for school, so she might as well try to think of a theme for her class. Sophia grabbed her newest sketchbook — one that she had just started using, and a pencil before folding herself on the floor, her back up against the wall.

Flipping open the sketchbook, Sophia searched for an empty page to start doodling on when she stopped at the sight of something that looked familiar. Pushing up to a straighter position, Sophia let the sketchbook fall on her lap, looking at what she had drawn on the page. It was a tree, one that had a wide base and long, scraggly branches. It had been something she started doodling a few weeks prior; it just came to her, out of the blue. At the time, Sophia thought nothing of it, but something inside of her made her pause at the doodle and slowly, Sophia turned the book upside down, getting a different angle of the tree.

Upside down, the tree looked exactly like the stump Sophia had seen in her dream. Her fingers traced down the roots as her mind wandered back to the dream she had. The way the roots had reached out and grabbed Stiles, yanking him down, almost pulling him into the tree. Sophia's eyes flicked up, looking over the sketchbook and into her dimly lit bedroom — she had to talk to Stiles.

* * *

 _A/N: Any questions, comments, concerns or cries of outrage? Please let me know what you think! I'm excited to share Sophia's story so be sure to [Youtuber voice] smash that follow/fave button and leave a review!_


	2. visions

Turning away from the once full coffee pot, Sophia twisted the cap of her travel mug tightly so that there was no way any of her precious coffee would spill. She pushed open the top so the coffee would cool as her mother, Helen, walked into the kitchen. Helen walked over to the coffee pot, pulling it out to see that it was empty before heaving a sigh and sticking it back in its place,

"It would be nice if you left some for me." Helen gave her daughter a pointed look. Sophia pulled a look of innocence, bringing her mug to her lips. "Check-in?" Helen asked, going to the fridge.

Her mother was Beacon Hill High's school counselor and something she did every morning was check in with Sophia - wanting to take care of her daughter before she took care of every other student. Sophia knew the drill like the back of her hand and was ready with her answers before her mother asked the questions. Even if they weren't always true, Sophia didn't want to worry her mother.

"I'm fine." Sophia leaned against the sink, watching her mother pull out her brown bagged lunch. "Slept decently, nervous because of the art assignment, but that's probably just normal anxiety." Sophia shrugged. "Nothing else to report."

"Good." Helen nodded, turning from the fridge to walk over to the opposite counters. She pulled open a drawer, taking out some plasticware and dropping it into the bag. "If you need me, I have some free time during your study period. I'm still meeting with kids to talk about what Ms. Blake did."

Sophia rolled her lips in and nodded, remembering how her English teacher had been the one committing ritual sacrifices. Her victims were people of the school and community and a lot were still working through their issues, even a month later. Sophia already had an extensive conversation about what happened with her mother; even though she didn't know any of the victims, Sophia was semi close with Ms. Blake.

"Come on." Helen grabbed her keys from the kitchen table, "Can't be late."

During the ride to school, Sophia drank her coffee and stayed quiet as her mom listened to some talk radio station. As the scenery flitted by, Sophia's mind drifted back to her dream - something she hadn't brought up to her mom; she didn't need her mom picking it apart. Sophia loved her mom - and she was grateful her mom had fought for full custody during the divorce, but sometimes Helen could be a little too intrusive. Sophia would rather just chill and not get involved if it didn't concern her or affect her directly.

Once Helen pulled into her marked parking spot, Sophia quickly got out of the car - not because she didn't want to be seen with her mom, but because she wanted to try and find Stiles before classes started. As much as she wanted to just let the dream be a dream, there was something deep down in Sophia, urging her to talk to Stiles about what she had seen. But they didn't share very many classes and those that they did, Sophia almost always sat in the back, not wanting to draw any attention to herself. No one really noticed her anyway; she didn't have any true friends, people only knowing her name because of her art or her mom. And that's how she liked it.

After she had cut all ties with Scott and Stiles, Sophia had become content with being by herself. She had a few acquaintances like Danny Mahealani and a girl from her art class, Mallory Collins, but other than that, Sophia was categorized as a loner. Flying under the radar, she didn't like to pull attention to herself and she didn't care about what went down in their high school - serial killer classmates or ritual preforming teachers. Sophia just kept to herself in Beacon Hills High, knowing that if she didn't bother them, they wouldn't bother her.

Looking around the school hallway, Sophia tried to locate Stiles as she walked to her locker. There was no sight of him, but as she opened her locker, Sophia kept an eye out for him. She tried to think of what to say, not wanting to come off as creepy or overdramatic. They hadn't spoken in over three years. How would she even start a conversation?

It seemed she would never find out; the morning went by and Sophia had yet to find Stiles. She knew they shared their History class together, but by the time she got there, the seats around him had been taken. Stiles didn't even notice her as she walked by him, but Scott McCall gave her a small, warm smile that Sophia quickly returned before ducking her head down.

Where Stiles had practically erased Sophia from his life after she stopped talking to the boys, Scott had always tried to be amicable. He knew what had happened to cause the sudden rift between Sophia and the two of them - something he felt wasn't his right to tell. So Scott let Sophia pull away, wanting her to do whatever she needed to do to get through it. But by the time Sophia pulled herself together, too much time had passed between where she could just fall back into how things were.

"Good afternoon, everyone." Sophia shifted in her seat in the back of the classroom as their History teacher called the class to attention, "My name is Mr. Yukimura." He introduced himself as Sophia crossed her arms on the desk, trying to pay attention, "I'll be taking over for your previous History teacher." Picking at the desk, Sophia raised her eyebrows at the reminder that Ms. Blake had sacrificed their History teacher as well as their Chemistry teacher.

"My family and I moved here three weeks ago." Mr. Yukimura continued, not lingering on the rather morbid reason as to why he was teaching, "I'm sure, by now, you all know my daughter, Kira. Or you might not since she's never actually mentioned anyone from school. Or brought a friend home for that matter."

There was a sound of a head hitting the desk and Sophia turned to see the girl next to her had slammed her head down. She figured that the girl must've been Mr. Yukimura's daughter, a thought confirmed when Mr. Yukimura gestured to her saying,

"Either way, there she is."

The rest of the class turned in their seats to get a better look at the new girl. Sophia's eyes darted from where Kira lifted her head in embarrassment to the front of the room, her eyes meeting Stiles's. Stiles stared at her for a moment and Sophia let a small smile grace her features before Stiles turned back in his seat, focusing on Mr. Yukimura.

"Now, let's begin with American History at the turn of the 20th century." Mr. Yukimura said, getting the class to turn away from staring at Kira. Kira slumped down in her seat, pulling her sleeves over her hands. She glanced to Sophia with a small embarrassed smile, getting a small smile from Sophia in response.

Throughout the class, Sophia tried to pay attention, but she never was a good student. The reason she was close with Ms. Blake was because Sophia was practically failing and Ms. Blake suggested they meet outside of class for extra help - a suggestion that Helen thought was a wonderful idea. After everything happened, Helen questioned her daughter about what exactly went happened during those after school sessions, fearing that Sophia was somehow involved and taken advantage of. But Sophia assured her mom that it was only reading activities - picking apart the book and trying to understand the concepts. There was no murdering happening. And the two only met a few times; Ms. Blake stopped their sessions rather abruptly for some unknown reason Sophia would never figure out.

Sophia found herself drawing mini stumps all along the edge of her notebook. Realizing what she was doing, Sophia quickly scribbled them out, not wanting anyone to see what she was drawing and ask questions. The bell rang, letting Sophia close her books and quickly try to catch Stiles as he walked out of the classroom, but someone stepped in front of her, pausing to pick up his things and make her lose sight of Stiles.

Turning, Sophia walked down the opposite way, going out of the classroom through the back door. She looked around for Stiles, seeing him and Scott by his locker. Starting for them, Stiles grabbed Scott and they quickly moved down the hallway, almost like something was wrong. Sophia went to follow them, only to bump into Kira, who had been standing in the middle of the hallway. At the bump, Kira glanced over to see Sophia and gave her a small smile, "Sorry." Kira quickly said, getting embarrassed again. Sophia gave her a small smile and glanced over her to see that Scott and Stiles had disappeared. She heaved a sigh before looking back at Kira,

Hiking her backpack up on her shoulder, Sophia started a conversation with Kira, "Sucks having a parent who works here, huh?"

"Oh, yeah...I guess." Kira rocked back on her heels.

"It's like I already see you enough at home, now I gotta see you at school? Jeez, let me live." Sophia tried to relate with Kira, ending with an awkward laugh. Kira laughed a little, looking away from Sophia before looking back at her,

"Does your dad work here too?" Kira asked, brow furrowing slightly.

"Oh no, my mom." Sophia corrected Kira, "If you're ever in need of guidance…" Sophia trailed off with a sigh. She paused for a moment, "I should get going." Sophia gave a small smile to Kira before walking past her, wanting to find where Stiles and Scott had disappeared to.

Peering into one of the classrooms, Sophia tried to find the boys before her next class began. But she didn't get very far; as soon as she stepped into the empty classroom, she felt a jolt go through her, startling her as the classroom quickly morphed in front of her. Taking in a quick breath, Sophia realized she was suddenly standing behind Stiles, facing Scott. At least, Sophia thought it was Scott; his eyes were burning red and fangs poked out of his mouth. There was blood pouring from his clenched fists while Stiles watched. Sophia went to move forward, wanting to help as Scott let out a yell of pain, falling to his knees. But before Sophia could take a step, she felt her body jolt again and she was back in the same empty classroom she had been in before.

Stumbling forward, Sophia caught herself on one of the desks, her bag falling to the ground. She was shaking, her hands slipping to grip at the desk as she felt her heart slamming against her chest. Blinking, Sophia took in her surroundings, trying to figure out what she had just seen. Her breath was coming fast and she felt the same way she did after she woke up from her dream - like her reality was crashing back down around her. She felt herself begin to panic and Sophia forced herself to calm down, closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths.

The bell rang, startling Sophia and after a moment, she reached to pick up her bag as students started to come into the classroom. Slowly, Sophia walked out of the classroom, not paying attention to who she bumped into. It felt like she was walking through Jell-o, Sophia not being able to get what she saw out of her head. Scott walked in front of her line of vision, causing Sophia to snap to attention. Hair flying out behind her, Sophia quickly hurried to catch up with Scott.

Grabbing his arm, Sophia stopped him from walking away from her. She ignored his surprised noise as well as his questions as to what was wrong - she grabbed his hand, turning it over and flattening it so she could see his palm. The skin was smooth and there was no sign of any injury. Brow furrowing, Sophia reached for his other hand, his voice muffled as she focused on the palm of his hand. Just as his other hand, there was no sign of the wound that caused the blood that had been pouring out.

"Fia!" Scott's concerned use of her old nickname cut through the bubble, getting Sophia to look up at him, startled.

Then she noticed his eyes - they were the same warm brown they had always been, not the terrifying red she had seen earlier. She reached up to place her hand on the side of his face. Her thumb pulled down the bottom of his eyelid as she tried to find the source of the glowing red that she had seen. Scott pulled away from her, brow furrowing at her actions,

"What are you doing?" He asked, concerned but also feeling his stomach knot up. Her hand dropped from where it was hovering and she pulled her lips in, almost like she was about to start crying. Scott went to reach out for her, only to have her shy away from him,

"Sophia, what's wrong?" Scott asked, wanting her to talk to him; something had obviously happened.

"I have to...go find Stiles." Sophia softly said, turning away from Scott.

Scott didn't know whether or not to go after Sophia, but he let her go, not even knowing how to start unpacking whatever the hell was causing Sophia to act like she had. He watched her bump into people, not even pausing to apologize. The knot in his gut became bigger; he felt like something terrible was happening to his former friend.

She felt like she was losing her mind; Scott showed no signs of being hurt or the red eyes that she had seen in whatever her mind had decided to show her. Her mind was playing tricks on her and she couldn't even begin to explain what was going on. She hoped that if she could find Stiles, he would believe her. He had to believe her; Sophia needed him to.

Throughout their friendship, Stiles had always been a little closer to Sophia than he was to Scott. They would tell each other stuff that they wouldn't tell anyone else. From the simple stuff like Stiles's crush on Lydia to the more serious things like Sophia hearing her parents yelling and fighting. They always believed each other - no matter what it was. Growing up, they were each other's confidants and Sophia hoped that they still could be.

It took the rest of the day, but Sophia managed to find Stiles at his locker after the final bell. Her stomach knotted up with anxiety as she walked up to Stiles; she had no idea what to say to him. They hadn't spoken in three years and Sophia knew Stiles was angry with her for cutting him off.

"Stiles." Sophia said, getting Stiles to look over his shoulder. He did a double take before looking back at his locker, scoffing a bit.

"Finally decided I was worth your time?" He coldly asked. Sophia swallowed, knowing she deserved that, but not realizing that it would hurt.

"You were in my dream last night." She seriously said, getting straight to the point. Stiles closed his locker door, turning to look at Sophia with a pointed look,

"And?"

"And...it didn't feel like _just_ a dream, Stiles." Sophia slowly said, not knowing how to explain it, "There was this-this stump in the middle of the classroom." Sophia motioned with her hands, looking down and not noticing Stiles's brow furrowing, "You were standing in front of it and you went to reach out to touch it-" She looked up at Stiles, "And it grabbed you." She softly finished, "Almost like it was pulling you down into it." Swallowing, Sophia watched Stiles's features hardened. He took a quick step up to her, getting close to her,

"How the hell do you know about that?" His voice was low and scary,

"I-I-It was a dream, Stiles." Sophia managed out, voice but a whisper, "I woke up before I saw what happened next." Stiles's jaw clicked and he looked away from her, "You know what I'm talking about, don't you?" Sophia realized, "Stiles-"

"It was just a stupid dream." Stiles looked back at her, cutting Sophia off, "It doesn't mean anything, Sophia." Sophia watched Stiles for a moment, seeing how he began to blink a bit faster, tongue darting out to lick his lips.

"There's something else," Sophia started, "Something else that happened." Stiles looked back at her, wondering briefly if she had seen something else in her dream that he saw as well. "Scott." Stiles's brow furrowed at Scott's name, not knowing how the two connected,

"What about Scott?"

"This afternoon, I-I-I don't know what it was, but I was in this classroom," Sophia was talking with her hands, "And it was empty but then all of a sudden, I was in a classroom with you and Scott." Sophia looked away from Stiles, eyebrows raising, "His eyes were this burning _red_ and his hands were bleeding, but..." Sophia trailed off, looking back at Stiles "When I saw him later, there was nothing. Almost like nothing happened."

"Nothing _did_ happen." Stiles seriously said, trying to stop Sophia from investigating any further. He didn't know how or why she saw what had happened in the classroom, but he wasn't about to have her getting involved; there was no need for her to be back in their lives, especially now, "Nothing like that even happened." Stiles lied to her, trying to get Sophia to believe him. Sophia stared at him, watching him for any signs of a lie. Stiles watched her swallow and nod, believing that he was telling the truth,

"Right." She gave him a tight smile, "Right, yeah." She stepped back from Stiles, "Probably just some side effect from the insane amount of coffee I had this morning. Sorry for wasting your time." Stiles watched as Sophia looked away from him, turning her head to the side.

Not even bothering with a goodbye, Stiles walked away from Sophia, leaving her alone in the school hallway. Sophia felt her heart sink; Stiles didn't believe her, nothing like that had even happened - she really was going crazy.

* * *

 _A/N: A little chapter, but we're diving right in! Any questions, comments, concerns or cries of outrage?_


	3. drift

Being an only child, Sophia was used to being alone. Sure, she liked having friends - everyone needed someone to talk to at some point in their lives, but Sophia didn't mind the days she spent alone or the times where no one bothered her.

One of her favorite places to be alone was in the art room; she was alone, but she was also able to express whatever she was feeling. The art classes had managed to line up with her schedule so that Sophia could have the room to herself early in the morning, during her free periods and sometimes even during her lunch period - on every other Thursday.

The next day, Sophia had opted to just wait until she got to her art class, knowing that it was small enough that no one would bother her. She let her mind wander as she sketched across the canvas with some charcoal. After freaking out both Scott and Stiles, Sophia tried to put whatever had happened to her in the back of her mind. She convinced herself that it was nothing more than some strange nightmare and something to do with a combination of low blood sugar and a high intake of caffeine; Sophia had realized she hadn't eaten at all that day, being so concerned with what was happening to her former friends. But the night went by with no other visions and her dreams were normal ones, nothing to cause concern.

So Sophia put it behind her, wanting to focus on something else that didn't involve the boys. Before she went into her art class, her friend, Danny had caught her by the elbow,

"Yo, Sophia."

Sophia and Danny were friends, but they weren't super close. They were always nice to each other, but never hung out outside of class. Sophia and him had shared a few classes, which caused the budding small friendship.

"So, I'm hosting a Halloween party." Danny started before asking if Sophia would be willing to bring paints for his Halloween party and paint up some of the people.

"It's a blacklight party." Danny explained, getting Sophia to understand that the paints needed to be a special type, "And I can pay you back and stuff, if you want."

"Oh, no." Sophia waved her hand in the air, making a face, "You don't have to pay me." Sophia rolled her eyes as if that was the most absurd thing she had ever heard, "I don't mind doing it." She gave him a lopsided smile, agreeing to help her friend out.

"Great!" Danny raised his eyebrows, clearly happy that Sophia had agreed. "I'll text you more details later."

And he left without another word. Sophia was more than happy to help Danny out - even though she wasn't much of a party person. She was eager for the distraction, wanting to put her dreams and hallucinations behind her.

If anything came of the events that happened the day, it was that it just proved to Sophia that there was no way she and Stiles and Scott would be as they were. It was still hard for her to accept and move on - especially having a fleeting moment where she thought differently because of what happened. Because of this, Sophia reverted back to how she acted around the boys before the crazy trick of the mind - ignoring them.

At the feeling of a hand on her shoulder, Sophia flinched slightly. A startled breath escaped as she glanced over to see her friend's head in her line of vision. Mallory's top bun slid down to rest at the side of her head as she tilted her head at Sophia. Making a face, Mallory pulled her head up, letting her bun go back to its proper position as Sophia turned to look at Mallory full on.

"Dude, didn't you hear the bell?" Mallory asked, stepping back and surveying the otherwise empty art room.

"Uh, no." Sophia dropped the charcoal back in the box and rubbed her hands together. Getting off the stool, Sophia reached down for her bag, slinging it over her shoulder. Mallory crossed her arms over her chest, head tilting as she looked at whatever Sophia had been sketching.

"I thought you decided the theme was _Man vs._ _Nature_." Mallory stated, bun sliding to the side.

"Yeah, I did." Sophia reached inside her bag for some baby wipes, pulling one out to wipe her fingers clean of the charcoal.

"So then why did you draw a door?" Mallory pointed to the canvas, curious and getting Sophia to look over her shoulder at what she had created.

The door wasn't _just_ a door. It was detailed with clear and defined edges, there was a depth to it and the shadows made it look like it was open slightly. Sophia screwed her mouth to the side, wondering why she even drew a door. Letting out a sigh, Sophia stepped up and pulled the paper off of the canvas. She folded it up until it was small enough to shove into her bag - glancing over at Mallory,

"It's just a door." Sophia shrugged.

"Oh-kay." Mallory gave her friend an amused smile, "Let's go enjoy the rest of our free period, yeah?" Sophia raised her eyebrows and nodded. Mallory spun around and skipped out of art room, Sophia followed her friend, walking behind her as they went out into the courtyard.

The weather in Beacon Hills had finally gotten nice enough as to where students could sit outside and enjoy their lunches or free periods. Mallory sat down at one of the tables that her other friends were sitting at, slipping her backpack off of her shoulders and reaching inside to pull out her brown paper bag that was her "Second Lunch." Sophia glanced around the courtyard and spotted Kira sitting at a table by herself. Holding up a finger to Mallory, who casually waved Sophia off, Sophia walked over to Kira, sliding into the seat across from her,

"Hey, Kira." Sophia gave Kira a warm smile as Kira looked up from her book, startled at the sight of Sophia.

"Oh, hi." Kira sat up a bit straighter, "Am I in someone's seat?"

"No." Sophia casually said with a shrug, "Just figured I'd come over and sit with you, if that's okay."

"Yeah, totally fine." Kira seemed a bit thrown off at Sophia sitting across from her and Sophia couldn't help but smile to herself. She liked Kira - she was quiet, but seemed nice and Sophia understood how having a parent at the school could encroach on their social lives.

The two girls sat in quiet for a few minutes - Sophia realized Kira was actually studying and she didn't want to distract Kira. Sophia tried to do the same, but she couldn't focus, eyes reading the same sentence five times over. Propping her elbows up, Sophia placed her chin in her hands, looking around the courtyard. Her gaze landed on where Stiles and Scott were sitting with their group of friends at the table next to them, talking about something or other:

"Okay, so what happens to a person who has a near-death experience and comes out of it seeing things?" Stiles was saying, gesturing wildly to himself and then to the rest of the table.

Sophia watched how he gestured as he talked - something he had always done. Her mom said it was because he always had too much pent up energy and needed to get it out while he talked. She wasn't sure what the group was talking about, but they always seemed to be discussing some weird topics and while Sophia was semi-interested, she knew that there was no way they would tell her what was going on. So she drifted past them, overhearing them talk about werewolves, kanimas and other strange creatures, keeping what she heard to herself, ignoring them and just being a little more careful when out at night. Just in case - though she figured it was just some sort of weird video game or other fictional work of art, nothing too serious.

"And is being haunted by demonic visions of dead relatives?" Allison spoke up, getting Sophia to look over at her.

Obviously things had changed, over the past few years there was shift in the friendship group Sophia used to know and love and be a part of. It used to be just the three of them: Sophia, Scott and Stiles, but after Sophia removed herself from the picture, her space was filled by Allison. And rightfully so; Sophia knew that she was dating Scott during sophomore year and it made her a little sad that she wasn't around to hear all about Scott's Firsts with Allison - something that she had looked forward to at one point. But it was her own choice so she couldn't hold anything against Scott.

Sophia was still surprised to see Lydia Martin hanging out with Scott and Stiles. They were from opposite worlds and Sophia remembered all of the full hearted attempts Stiles had made to try and get Lydia's attention, but nothing ever worked. Fast forward a few years later and it seemed like Lydia was actually _friends_ with Scott and Stiles, two people she used to make fun of.

"They're all locked up because they're _insane."_ Isaac Lahey responded, getting reactions from the table. He was another strange new member of the group - he had been accused of murdering his father and then was labeled a fugitive. The charges ended up being dropped against him after the police station connected the killings to Matt Daehler.

Sophia chalked up Isaac's friendship with the boys as one of mutual interests - they were all on the lacrosse team. She knew this because she went to every game, just to silently cheer on her ex friends from the back of the stands. Although she wasn't a full part of their lives, Sophia still liked to keep casual tabs on them, but it was clear there was so much she missed out on.

Sophia glanced back at Kira to see that her attention was also on the group at the table a few feet from them. Eyebrows furrowing, Kira started to close up her books, pick up her backpack and get up from the bench without saying anything to Sophia,

"Kira-what-?" Sophia started before realizing that Kira was headed over to the table of her ex-BFFs, "Oh no, don't-" Sophia closed up her books and grabbed her bag, going to follow Kira,

"...I couldn't help overhearing what you guys were talking about." Kira was saying as Sophia stepped up next to her, "And I think I actually might _know_...what you're talking about." Kira looked over at Sophia and then back to the group, "There's a Tibetan word for it. It's called _Bardo_. It literally means _in-between state._ The state between life and death." Kira explained, getting confused looks from everyone at the table, including Sophia. She glanced from Kira to look at Scott and Stiles, noticing how Scott met her look with a small, warm smile that disappeared as quick as it came.

"And what do they call you?" Lydia Martin primly asked, folding her hands under her chin,

"Kira." Scott spoke up, getting the table's attention, "She's in our History class." Scott explained how he knew Kira, giving her the same warm smile he had given Sophia moments earlier, except it lasted and was more welcoming. Sophia noticed a slight blush creeping up against the back of Kira's neck.

"So are you talking Bardo in Tibetan Buddhism or Indian?" Lydia had moved on, changing the subject,

"Either, I guess." Kira shrugged, sitting down in the open space next to Stiles, "But all the stuff you guys were just saying? All that happens in Bardo." Kira explained, wide eyed and ready to teach them about Bardo, "There are different progressive states where you can have hallucinations. Some you see, some you just hear. And you can be visited by peaceful and wrathful deities."

"Wrathful deities?" Isaac repeated, looking concerned,

"And what are those?" Allison asked, brow furrowing slightly,

"Like demons." Kira cheerfully said with a casual shrug. Sophia made a face, pulling down the corners of her mouth as she looked above Kira,

"Demons." Stiles sighed out, "Why not?" Sophia looked down and met Stiles's gaze for a moment before he looked away from her,

"Hold on, if there are different progressive states, then what's the last one?" Allison asked,

"Death. You die." Kira stated as if were the most obvious thing in the world. A blanket of concerned silence came over the group and Sophia noticed that all of them were looking rather uncomfortable,

"Oh-kay, Kira, let's go." Sophia spoke up, breaking the silence. She shifted her books so she could reach down and grab Kira's arm, "I think that's enough talk of _wrathful deities._ " Kira looked up at Sophia, letting herself be brought to her feet. Sophia made a face and lifted her hand up at the group as a goodbye, letting Kira gather up her things.

Turning away from the table, Sophia started to walk back across the courtyard, Kira hurrying to catch up with her. Stiles watched Sophia and Kira walk away together, Sophia leaning in to say something to Kira. His gaze shifted and Stiles noticed a folded up piece of paper laying in the grass where Sophia had been standing.

While the rest of the group talked about Kira's slightly terrifying revelation, Stiles reached down to pick up the paper, unfolding it and pressing it against the table. It was a drawing that Sophia had done, he knew that much from her initials scribbled at the bottom, but he wasn't sure what it was.

"Is that a door?" Scott asked, glancing over at the picture. Stiles looked over to him, angling it slightly so Scott could see it better. Stiles leaned back, getting a different view of it.

"Yeah, I think so." Stiles's brow furrowed as he looked at the picture.

* * *

Later that night, the boys went to Deaton for some sort of guidance. Stiles told him about what was going on in his dream - miming the sign language. Deaton translated, telling both boys it was a question,

"When is a door, not a door?"

Stiles was confused, not understanding the riddle, but Scott figured it out almost immediately, answering with a serious, "When it's ajar."

Annoyed with his subconscious, Stiles became defensive, sputtering out about how ridiculous it was that his mind was giving him ridiculous riddles that probably didn't mean anything. But Deaton was quick to remind him about the effects of what sacrificing themselves to the Nemeton were,

"When the three of you went under the water, when you crossed from unconsciousness to a kind of superconsciousness." Deaton explained, "You essentially opened a door in your minds."

"So what does that mean?" Stiles was quick to question, placing his hands on his hips as he looked to Scott, "The door's still open?"

"Ajar." Deaton corrected with a nod

"A _door..._ into our _minds_?" Stiles was still trying to wrap his head around what the vet was telling him.

"I did tell you it was risky."

"What do we do about it?"

"Well, that's difficult to answer." Deaton took in a breath, although the look on his face proved otherwise, something Stiles was quick to point out,

"Oh, no, wait a second, I know that look." Stiles motioned to Deaton's face, " _That's the we know exactly what's wrong with you, but we have no idea how to fix it_ look."

"One thing I do know is that having an opening like that into your mind, it's not good." Deaton responded, "You each need to close that door. And you need to do it as soon as possible."

Giving them advice on how to close the door in their minds, Stiles and Scott turned to leave the vet's office. Stiles slipped his hands into his pockets, feeling his hand hit something. He pulled out the piece of paper, flipping it open as Scott stood beside him. It was Sophia's drawing from earlier in the day.

Unfolding it once more, Stiles took another look at the door, seeing that it was slightly open. His brow furrowed as he studied the quick, yet detailed sketch; it seemed that Sophia knew about the door. The question was: how?

* * *

 _A/N: Any questions, comments, concerns or cries of outrage?_


	4. push pull

The bell rang just as Sophia stepped into her History class - a small, personal victory for Sophia. Hiking her bag up on her shoulder, Sophia spotted Scott, Stiles and Allison grouped by her desk so she paused by the bookcase, not wanting to disturb them. Luckily, the bell broke the three of them apart and Allison walked away from the boys with a reminder to text her. Sophia ducked her head down, avoiding eye contact with Allison as she stepped to the side to let Allison pass.

After Allison walked by Sophia, she stepped back, heading for her desk. Only Stiles had stepped forward to go down the aisle to his seat, but Sophia had blocked him. The two started a little dance with each other - each stepping the same way at the same time until Stiles stopped it. He reached out and placed his hands on Sophia's shoulders, making her stop her side to side steps. Then, he shifted her body over so that he could step around her and Sophia heard him grumble under his breath at her.

Sophia watched him flop down into his seat and then glance over his shoulder at her. Quickly ducking her head back down, Sophia tried to make it seem like she wasn't staring, but she still felt caught. Sophia walked over to her seat in the back of the classroom, sitting down and letting her bag drop to the ground. Folding her arms atop the desk, Sophia dropped her chin down to rest on her arms and looked back at the back of Stiles's head.

There had been zero interaction between the former best friends since Kira accosted the group the day before out in the courtyard. For the rest of the day, Kira had chattered on and on to Sophia about Bardo, sprinkling in her doubts that she didn't do a good job explaining things and how there was probably more information online - should she make a packet for them? Sophia engaged in the conversation, filing away the information Kira was telling her, even if it all sounded ridiculous.

And that night, Kira had invited Sophia over to help her compile a packet of information on Bardo. Sophia was grateful for the invite, even if the hangout wasn't a typical hangout. Kira was a little weird, but Sophia liked her - it was clear Kira just wanted to impress Scott and make a friend in her new school. And Sophia knew Scott would be more than amicable to Kira; he was the nicest person Sophia knew. Part of Sophia hoped that Kira's budding friendship with Scott would help her begin to get back into Scott's life - another part knew Sophia didn't deserve a friendship with Scott after how she treated both of the boys. So Sophia was grateful that Kira had seemed to have taken a liking to her and she hoped there was a friendship between her and Kira; sometimes she missed having someone to talk to.

Eyes flicking over, Sophia saw Kira moving to sit at an empty desk by the window, head going into her hands. Scott was walking away from her with an amused smile on his face and holding the packet of research Kira had did in his hands. Sophia let herself smile slightly at the obvious Kira and Scott interaction that had just happened - she could only hope it went well. He sat down next to Stiles as Mr. Yukimura called the class to attention.

"We were just talking about internment camps and prisoners of war." Mr. Yukimura explained as he walked in front of the chalkboard so he could pick up his textbook.

Sophia went along with the rest of the class as she reached down to pull her textbook from her backpack. Flipping it open to the page on the board, Sophia leaned back and slumped down in her seat, propping her feet up on the chair basket in front of her. She hadn't done the reading that was assigned since she had been hanging out with Kira.

"There's a passage in our reading that I'd like to go over in more detail…" Mr. Yukimura looked up from the textbook as he walked over to the podium, "Who would like to come up and read aloud for us?" His eyes scanned the class as he looked for a volunteer. Sophia slid down lower in her seat, trying to make herself smaller for fear of being called on. But thankfully, she wasn't Mr. Yukimura's victim, "Mr. Stilinski, how about you?" Sophia looked over to where Stiles was sitting, not being able to see his reaction, but hearing him try to get out of it,

"Oh, maybe someone else could."

"Everyone participates in my class, Mr. Stilinski." Mr. Yukimura made it clear that he wasn't asking. Stiles paused for a moment before his head bobbed and he pushed out of his seat.

Sophia followed Stiles with her eyes, watching him go up to the podium where Mr. Yukimura was. Their teacher pointed out the passage he wanted Stiles to read before stepping back to lean against his desk. Sophia didn't feel like paying attention so she pushed herself forward, resting her chin on her arms again.

There was a moment of quiet as Stiles looked at the passage - a little too long if you asked Sophia. It caught her attention, making Sophia straighten up in her seat and become concerned. Her eyes darted to Scott, who's attention was on the packet Kira had given him. Glancing back to Stiles, Sophia watched as Stiles's hands gripped the sides of the podium a bit tighter and his breathing became labored. She knew the signs, knew what was happening - Stiles's breathing came faster as he picked his head up to look at the class. His eyes were glazing over and Sophia tried to catch his eye by sitting up straighter, almost standing up as Stiles looked away from her.

Scott's eyes flicked up from Kira's packet of information, seeing what Sophia was seeing - Stiles was visibly shaking, his heaving breaths audible and his eyes darting around the room.

"Stiles, you okay?" Scott asked, having stood up from his seat. Sophia watched as Stiles slipped against the podium, barely catching himself. Her heart jumped to her throat and she stood up from her seat as Scott went to steady Stiles. Sophia went to help before a little voice reminded her that she wasn't allowed to anymore - it wasn't her problem. But the uneasy feeling refused to go away and Sophia was left torn between wanting to help and knowing Stiles wouldn't want her to help.

At the podium, Scott had Stiles in his arms as he looked around the classroom. He noticed Sophia half standing by her desk, a worried look on her face; she knew what was happening and knew it was about to get worse. Sophia's eyes flicked over to Scott's and then she immediately looked down and away - feeling caught.

"I should get him to the nurse." Scott quickly said to Mr. Yukimura, who nodded - no questions ask as Scott helped Stiles out of the classroom before his panic attack got worse. Sophia watched them go, the knot of worry growing in her gut as they left the room.

"Ms. McBride." Mr. Yukimura got her attention, "Would you like to finish the reading?" Sophia chewed on her bottom lip, knowing it wasn't a question, before she nodded.

Shuffling up to the podium, Sophia wrapped her hands around the edges where Stiles's hands once were. Sophia glanced to the open classroom door where Scott and Stiles had disappeared through and she chewed on her bottom lip as she turned her attention to the reading. As she began to read the passage aloud, Sophia's thoughts drifted back to the last time she had seen Stiles have a panic attack - it had been almost ten years since and Sophia was worried as to why he would have one over something so simple as reading aloud.

While they were growing up, Stiles's panic attacks had almost always been related to his mom causing Helen McBride to teach Sophia and Scott how to handle the panic attacks and how to calm Stiles down. Sometimes the panic attacks were violent, other times, it was a matter of heightened anxiety. But either way, Sophia had been taught how to help Stiles and for the rest of the class period - after she was finished reading aloud, her body was reacting to Stiles's panic attack.

As she sat her desk, Sophia gently massaged her hand while she took note of three objects in the room, then three sounds and finally three smells. Her breathing shifted to going in through her nose and out through her mouth as she slumped down into her seat and her worry began to slowly subside. She hoped that Scott remembered the techniques they were taught when they were younger, wanting Stiles to be okay.

When the bell rang, Sophia pushed out of her seat, only half listening as Mr. Yukimura reminded them about their reading for the evening. Scott and Stiles hadn't come back all period and Sophia wanted to stop by the nurse's office on her way to lunch so that she could subtly check in on Stiles. Just to make sure he was okay - he wouldn't even know she was there.

Pushing through the masses of students, Sophia kept her head down as she headed for the nurse's office. She did notice that Kira had both Stiles and Scott's backpacks in her hand as she walked ahead of her, but Sophia lost sight of her in the crowd.

As she got to the nurse's office, Sophia peered through the window, noticing that there was no sign of either of the boys. If anything, Sophia figured Stiles had probably been sent home since he hadn't come back to class and Scott had probably driven him just to be safe.

"Is everything okay, dear?" The nurse noticed Sophia standing at the door and had opened it as Sophia thought to herself about why Stiles wasn't in the nurse's office.

"Oh, yeah." Sophia gave the nurse a warm smile, "I was just looking for my fr- a classmate." Sophia caught herself.

"I haven't had any visitors all day, honey." The nurse kindly said. Sophia felt her brow furrow, but she quickly masked her confusion.

"Oh, okay!" Sophia forced another smile on her face, "Thank you." Sophia bid goodbye to the nurse as she walked away, more confused than ever.

As she walked for the stairs, Sophia tried to think as to where Scott could've taken Stiles. If not the nurse's office then where? Sophia realized she didn't have an answer to her question so she decided to head to the cafeteria and just hope she would be able to see Scott later and somehow find out if Stiles was okay.

Going through the motions, Sophia ate her lunch at Mallory's table, but didn't engage in the conversation. Instead, she people watched, which let her notice Animal Control pulling into the school parking lot, escorted by two squad cars from the sheriff's station. No one else in the cafeteria seemed to notice - or rather, few did and Sophia excused herself from the table to investigate more.

When she walked into the main hall, two Animal Control employees walked by her with some sort of animal catching device. She watched as they headed through the double doors and for the locker rooms before turning her attention to where Stiles was talking with his dad. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but as they walked towards where the Animal Control people had gone, Sophia heard Stiles ask if Scott had heard what they were talking about.

Sophia looked around for Scott, spotting him at the other end of the hall and watching him nod. Her brow furrowed as she looked back at Stiles, trying to figure out how Scott had heard their conversation and Stiles's question from his position. But she didn't ponder on it for long; Stiles caught her staring as his dad turned them away to walk towards the locker room.

"Hey-" Sophia reached out to Stiles, but stopped herself from touching him. The sheriff didn't notice, already walking through the double doors and towards the locker room. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Stiles's voice was hard as he avoided eye contact with Sophia, his head turned to the side, looking where his dad had gone.

"I saw what happened in History, Stiles-"

"I said I'm fine." Stiles cut her off with a snap, looking back at her suddenly. Sophia drew back, letting her hand drop to her side as she swallowed hard.

"Okay." She forced a small smile on her face, head bobbing, "Good." Even though she really wanted to know what caused the panic attack and when they had started up again, Sophia realized Stiles wasn't keen on talking with her. Stiles eyed her for a moment, eyes darting around her face - he still had her drawing of the door in his backpack and wanted to question her about it; it seemed like she knew more than she was letting on.

Understanding that the conversation wasn't going any further, Sophia walked past Stiles. She wasn't sure where she was going to go, but she knew that she needed to get away from him; she was feeling quite vulnerable and knew that she was going to start crying if she had to keep watching him look at her with such distaste.

"Sophia." Stiles got Sophia to stop and turn back to look at him, even though he still used the same cold tone, "Do you know where my backpack is?" He asked with raised eyebrows.

"Kira had it." Sophia swallowed as Stiles's brow furrowed, obviously not knowing who she was referring to. "Kira." Sophia repeated herself, "You met her yesterday. Talked about demons." Sophia waved her hand in the air as she explained Kira in a way that Stiles would remember her.

"Oh, right." Stiles' brow raised, "Sunshine death girl." Sophia let out an amused scoff at Stiles's small nickname, rolling her eyes at him. The corners of Stiles's mouth quirked up as he ducked his head down, not wanting to show that he had cracked at Sophia's reaction. "Do you know where she went?" Stiles asked after a moment, serious once more.

"No." Sophia shook her head, "But she had Scott's bag too so I'm sure if you find Scott, you'll find her." Sophia advised, giving Stiles a small, half smile.

"Alright, thanks." Stiles nodded and looked down at his hands.

Since it was clear that Stiles was done talking to her, Sophia turned away from him and continued to walk away from him. She headed for her locker, wanting to do something mindless and act like she was busy. As she opened her locker, Sophia glanced down the hall to see Stiles walking through the double doors towards the locker room, not giving her a second look.

Staring at her locker for a minute, Sophia sighed before shutting it. She didn't know what else to do with herself - her lunch period was almost over so it was pointless to go back to the cafeteria. So Sophia found herself wandering towards her next class, except instead of ending up at the classroom, Sophia realized she had gone down to the locker rooms.

There was still a small crowd of students and deputies milling in the hallway. Curious, Sophia continued her walk towards to the locker room, noticing the broken window in the boys' locker room. She stepped through the doorway, seeing Kira and her dad standing by the sinks and the fallen lockers. Seeing that Kira and her dad were talking to each other, Sophia looked over to see Scott sitting on one of the benches, Stiles coming into the locker room from the other door while his dad stayed behind to talk to a deputy.

"What happened?" Sophia asked, brow furrowing as she walked up to Kira. Her dad had walked away so it was just Sophia and Kira. Kira let her arms drop to her sides and took in a breath,

"There was a wild coyote in the hallway." Kira explained as Sophia's eyebrows jumped, "And it came after me so I ran in here."

"Are you okay?" Sophia reached out to touch Kira's arm, concerned for her maybe new friend, "Did it scratch you or anything?"

"No." Kira quickly shook her head, "Scott scared it off before anything happened." She gestured to the fallen lockers and Sophia looked over to where Scott and Stiles were talking quietly.

"Good, good." Sophia rubbed Kira's arm, looking back at her with a warm smile, "I'm glad you're okay and not coyote lunch."

"Yeah, me too." Kira sighed, sounding relieved. Sophia went to suggest that the two girls get out of the locker room, but was interrupted by Kira's dad calling her over. Kira gave her an apologetic smile before sulking over to where her dad was standing with an Animal Control employee.

Realizing there wasn't anything else she could do, Sophia walked out of the locker room. She didn't want to be caught by Stiles and Scott and then have Stiles question her as to why she was there. Truth be told, Sophia wasn't sure how or why she ended up near the locker rooms. So she decided to get out before anyone noticed.

As she walked down the hall, Sophia maneuvered her way through the thinning crowd. There was still a good amount of people lingering to see what was going on or people pausing as they walked to their classes. Someone stepped back and bumped into Sophia, who looked over to see who it was.

"Mr. Tate." Sophia blinked at the man, not expecting to see him. His features relaxed as he saw Sophia. He hadn't seen the teenager since the funeral, even though he had kept in contact with her mother, who had been more than helpful through the years since he had lost his wife and children.

"Hi, sorry." Sophia gave him an apologetic smile, "Is everything okay?" She asked as two deputies placed their hands on him, forcing him to move away from the locker room. Mr. Tate didn't answer her as he was turned away from her. Sophia couldn't help but watch as Mr. Tate was escorted down the hall, a dirty, old baby doll in his hand.

After school was over, Sophia found herself in at her kitchen table, reading old news articles she practically had memorized. All of them were concerning how a mother and her two daughters were killed in a car accident. Sophia was classmates with one of the young girls, Malia, having played together a few times since their moms were friends, but they weren't close friends. Sophia hadn't thought of Malia in years, not until she saw Mr. Tate at the school.

"What are you looking at?" Helen asked as she walked in from her run. Sophia didn't look up from the article, sliding her fingers up the mousepad so that her mom could see the headline. Helen hummed to herself, placing a hand on top of Sophia's head, "What's got you reading about that?" She didn't show her concern, instead pushing a question on her daughter to try and get Sophia to talk instead of assuming what the reason was.

"Mr. Tate was at the school today." Sophia tilted her head back to look up at her mom.

"Really?" Helen asked, brow furrowing slightly, "Do you know why?"

"No." Sophia looked back at her computer screen, "But he was escorted out by deputies." Helen had heard of the coyote attack in the locker room - she had already talked to Kira about it during her free period, but she didn't know that Henry Tate had been at the school. She would have to reach out to him and make sure everything was okay. The anniversary of the accident was approaching and she knew it was a hard time for him.

"Well, if you need to talk about anything that happened today..." Helen trailed off, leaving the statement open ended. Sophia nodded as her mom pressed a kiss to her head before walking out of the kitchen and disappearing up the stairs.

Sophia exited out of the article, closing her laptop and getting to her feet. Walking over to the sink, Sophia filled up her water glass, letting her mind wander. Her thoughts drifted around Malia and Mr. Tate as she remembered the last time she had seen Malia - the night the accident happened, Malia was over Sophia's house since her mom had to pick up Malia's younger sister from dance class.

Her mind didn't linger on the memory for much longer; suddenly Sophia felt a jolt go through her - the same one she had felt before. Her chest arched up and her vision went blurry as Sophia gasped in surprise. Slowly, her vision returned, but she could only see what was right in front of her - which wasn't a pretty sight.

She was standing in some sort of industrial room - it looked like it could be an apartment with the minor amount of furniture that was in the space, but Sophia wasn't sure. Not that she cared though; all she cared about was who was standing in front of her. Scott. With blood dripping from his mouth, in front of two muscular looking guys who Sophia could've sworn she'd seen before.

Scott let out a war cry and ran straight at one of the men, who easily grabbed Scott. Slamming him on the table, the man leapt on top - hovering over Scott for a moment before slamming his fist against Scott's face. Sophia jumped at the action, letting out a small gasp of surprised horror. The muscular guy continued to wail on Scott with his fists, punching him over and over again,

"Stop!" Sophia cried out, "Stop hitting him!" She screamed out, voice cracking as she was forced to watch her ex-best friend be relentlessly pummeled. Scott made no effort to fight back - not like he could anyway since he was trapped under his attacker. She screamed at them to stop, but it was no use - they obviously couldn't hear her.

Wanting to move to help, Sophia took a step forward, remembering how last time she had been jolted back away from the scene. She wasn't about to let it happen again - not while Scott was being beaten to a pulp. There was still that same barrier and Sophia forced her body to move forward, to go toward Scott. It was painful, like her body was fighting against it, but she had to get to Scott, had to help him since no one else was. So she squeezed her eyes shut and tried her damnest to move.

All of sudden, Sophia felt herself in a different position than she was before. She opened her eyes to see the guy looming above her. There was a muffled ringing noise surrounding Sophia as she watched the guy's fist raise up. Before she could react, his fist collided with her face and right as the punch landed, she felt a force push her back as something else pulled at her. The noise became clearer, echoing for a moment before becoming real - it was the shrill noise of her cellphone ringing.

Taking in a deep, broken breath, Sophia realized she was back in her kitchen. The glass she was holding was overflowing with water and her phone dinged with a missed call. She blinked the tears out of her eyes as she let out the same broken breath while the side of her face throbbed in pain. Sophia's entire being shook as she took in her surroundings - there was no sign of Scott or the two guys punching him. Sophia's hand unclenched from around the glass, letting it drop into the sink with a thump. Slowly, she turned around, bracing herself on the edge of the sink because she didn't trust her body to hold her up.

"Scott." Sophia whispered out before her world went dark.

* * *

 _A/N: Any questions, comments or cries of outrage?_


	5. motion sickness

Stepping into the guidance counselor's office, Stiles got Helen McBride's attention. She gave him a warm smile that reached all the way up to her eyes. Stiles hesitated for a moment, only stepping forward after Helen waved him in. He shut the door behind him and went to the chair that sat open in front of her desk.

"You, uh, you wanted to see me?" Stiles asked, handing over the yellow slip to Helen as he sat down in the chair. His backpack dropped with a thump on the floor next to him.

"Yes, yep, thank you." Helen took the slip from Stiles' fingers and placed it on her desk, "Hi, Stiles, how are you?" Helen warmly asked. There was a maternal smile on her face and Stiles felt like he was a kid again. Every time he interacted with Sophia's mother made him feel like that - she had that effect on him; she was one of the closest maternal figure in his life (besides Melissa of course) And Helen always knew how to help Stiles before he even knew he had a problem.

"Good thanks." Stiles gave her a tight smile, trying to stuff that feeling down. It had been a while since he had been in Helen's office - the last time was right after Matt Daehler had been killed. And before that was right before Sophia shut him out of her life.

"I just wanted to talk to you about what happened in class the other day." Stiles fell back in his seat, hand going to rub around his mouth as he instantly became defensive. His thoughts immediately went to Sophia. She had told her mom about what happened to him in Mr. Yukimura's class - that _bitch._

"Did Sophia tell you?" He bit out, voice dropping a bit as he tried to mask his anger. Helen noticed his change in persona and she leaned forward, arms folding on top of the desk.

"Sophia didn't tell me anything." Helen shook her head slightly before making eye contact with Stiles again, "It was actually two of your teachers who expressed concern over how you've been acting in class lately." Stiles paused for a moment before nodding and sliding forward in his seat. Helen sat back in her seat, "They've said you're falling behind in class, falling _asleep_ in class." Helen looked at her notepad, "But what concerns me is the panic attack that happened in Mr. Yukimura's class." Helen looked up at Stiles, who ducked his head down as he played with his fingers.

"Stiles, you haven't had a panic attack in years." Worry colored Helen's voice as she leaned forward and folded her arms a top the desk, "Can you tell me what caused it?"

"I - I'm not sure." Stiles' eyebrows quickly raised up as he eyes darted up to look at Helen, "I never really know what causes them." Helen nodded, knowing he was right. The last time she could remember Stiles having a panic attack was when it was brought on by his mother.

"Are you still shaken up about Ms. Blake?" Stiles' brow furrowed in slight confusion, not knowing why she would bring it up, "Your father was taken by her." Helen tried to establish a theme between the panic attacks, wanting nothing more than to help so that they could work on tactics to detect future panic attacks.

"I remember." Stiles sighed out, slumping down further in his chair. His foot began to tap as he looked around the office.

There were different posters full of infographics about various mental illnesses. A corkboard was hanging behind Helen that had a few flyers for school activities, brochures for outside help were atop the cabinet and there was a bookshelf full of books - in the middle was a framed picture of Sophia and her mother on a vacation a few years prior. _Ireland_. Stiles remembered; Sophia had told him all about how she and her mom were going with her grandmother to visit where her grandmother had lived for a few years. Stiles' eyes darted away as he shook off the memory and he met Helen's expectant look,

"I don't know." He pressed his lips together as he quickly raised his eyebrows up, "I don't know." He repeated himself with a sigh, not knowing what else to say. Helen studied him for a moment before nodding.

"Okay. Well, I just wanted to check in." She sat back in her seat, realizing Stiles wasn't going to tell her anything and she didn't want to pry, "And if you don't want to talk to me, there are plenty of things you can do to help yourself." Helen handed over a few brochures and flyers. Stiles took them, knowing he was just going to throw them out after he walked out of the office. "If there's nothing else you want to tell me, you can head back to class." She gave him a small smile.

Stiles bobbed his head in the nod, reaching down to grab his backpack. He pushed out of his chair and swung his backpack over his shoulder. Helen picked up her pen to write down something on her notepad, glancing up to see Stiles was hovering over the desk. He glanced over to the picture on Helen's bookshelf again before looking back at Helen. His brow furrowed as he swallowed before speaking,

"Is, uh, is Sophia in today?" Stiles asked. He still needed to confront her about her drawing he had found.

"No, no, she's taking a mental health day." Helen motioned with her pen, "She should be back tomorrow. I'll tell you asked about her." She gave him another warm smile and Stiles shook his head a bit,

"Oh, you don't have to do that." Stiles quickly shot Helen down. Helen nodded once at him as Stiles turned around.

"Stiles," Helen got him to look over his shoulder, "My door is always open if you ever need to talk." Stiles hesitated for a moment before nodding. He exited without another word, gently shutting the door behind him as the bell rang.

* * *

" _The coyote ran out of the school before animal control could catch it. Luckily, no one was hurt._ " The news anchor was saying as Sophia shuffled through the living room. She glanced over to the television as she heard the report, seeing some B-roll of the high school on the screen as the news anchor talked.

Even though she had already heard the news story during the morning news, Sophia was still thinking about what had happened in the school. She couldn't understand why or how a wild animal just wandered into a high school. There were woods around the school, but there were also enough students around to keep the wildlife at bay.

"And up next we go to Bob with the weather." Sophia mumbled along with the news anchor before flipping off the television.

The majority of Sophia's morning had been spent shuffling around her house, opening and closing cabinets, breaking out her charcoal and starting on some Halloween designs for Danny's paint party, all in an effort to keep herself busy. She had taken a mental health day under the guise of feeling stressed and her mother not only accepted it, but congratulated Sophia on recognizing that she needed a break; "Your mental health is just as important as your physical health."

Her mind was the reason Sophia had taken a day off - sort of. She was mostly feeling drained after what had happened to her the night before. After collapsing on the floor of her kitchen, Sophia came to a few minutes later. Her body ached and a dull throb coursed through her head. Her mother had no idea what had happened to her - not hearing Sophia's fall.

Sophia managed to pull herself to her feet, trying to blink to fuzziness out of her vision. It took a bit but Sophia's vision finally did clear - enough for her to find her phone and try to get in contact with Scott before realizing that she had deleted his number in a fit of impulsivity after their falling out. Same with Stiles'. Before she could do anything else, a wave of fatigue crashed over Sophia and she decided it was best to get to her room before she fainted again - not wanting her mother to find her.

After spending most of the day wandering aimlessly around her house, Sophia began to regret taking her mental health day. She wasn't even sure why she decided not to go to school. At first, it was because she was afraid to talk to Scott about what she had seen; she didn't need him thinking she was crazy. Then it became her being worried that what she had seen had actually happened and she couldn't see him all beaten up; it would hurt her since she didn't stop it from happening. Finally, she wondered if she should've gone to school and demanded answers. It was the second time she had seen something and there was the beginnings of a pattern brewing.

All thoughts aside, Sophia was beginning to get cabin fever. Usually, she didn't mind being alone in her house but with everything going on lately, she felt like she was missing out - that she needed to be at school in case something happened; maybe this time she could prevent it.

Not knowing what else to do with herself, Sophia decided to take a nap. If anything, the day could be used to catch up on sleep since she found that most nights she was tossing and turning as her subconscious gave her visions of Stiles doing mundane tasks rather than visions of sugarplums dancing. Sophia would only have the house to herself for a few more hours since school was letting out rather soon, which meant her mother would be home to disrupt the silence.

Making a pit stop at the bathroom, Sophia went into the cabinet above the sink and took out the bright orange prescription bottle. She shook the bottle, hearing the pills rattle around and looked at how her name was finely printed on the label. The pills had been given to her after her grandmother's death to help her cope, but all they really did was make her sleepy. The prescription hadn't been refilled since the beginning of junior year, since Sophia decided to accept what had happened and move forward.

It had become a habit, though, for Sophia to take the pills out, consider taking one to help her sleep - especially recently, but then she would put the bottle back and go into her room. Which is exactly what Sophia did next. She shuffled down the hallway into her bedroom, shutting the door behind her and climbing onto her bed.

Cocooning herself in her blankets, Sophia snuggled down into her bed. She let her eyes shut as she tried to think of something to focus on as she fell asleep, trying to ignore the sound of her heart thumping as she laid the side of her head against the pillow. Her room was rather dark and quiet, making it easy for sleep to take over.

Suddenly, Sophia gasped awake, her body flinching back as her eyes popped open. But she was no longer in her room - no, the floor was cold and hard against her body. As she moved, there was the sound of something rustling in tandem. Sophia lifted her head up and looked around; her bedroom had been replaced by the woodsy Preserve. The rustling she had heard was from the leaves on the forest floor and the cold air wasn't her fan, but the wind nipping at her bare arms.

Slowly, Sophia got to her feet. The scene flexed with her movements, showing Sophia her bedroom and the Preserve. It made Sophia slightly dizzy and rather confused. Shaking it off, she could see Stiles a few feet away from her, talking on his phone as he walked away and went deeper into the Preserve.

"Stiles!" Sophia called out, hearing her voice echo around her.

Spinning around, Sophia tried to figure out how her voice had echoed in such a way. Only as she spun, the scene spun too. Stiles was replaced by Scott who took a nasty tumble off of his dirt bike. Sophia let out a worried noise in reaction and went to go help Scott. She hurried towards him, only to feel like he was getting further and further away from her. Sophia stopped in her tracks and tried to control her frustration - closing her eyes and tipping her head back, letting out a slow breath.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself face to face with the warning label of an animal trap. Her brow furrowed and she glanced up to see that Lydia Martin was stuck in the trap. Not bothering to question how or why, Sophia looked back at the warning label, wanting to get Lydia out before it snapped off her ankle.

The words swam before Sophia's eyes, going in and out of focus as she tried to read how to disarm it. She heard Stiles' voice in her ears, worriedly telling Lydia that he couldn't read the warning label. Lydia began to try and boost Stiles' confidence by telling him that he didn't need the directions - he could just figure it out.

As Lydia talked, the sound of Stiles' frantic heartbeat filled Sophia's ears. Sophia pushed the sound away and focused on the words. The label became clearer and Sophia realized she could read the warning.

"The knob, turn the knob." Sophia whispered to herself.

Almost like Stiles heard what Sophia had said, he quickly turned the knob on the trap. In one fluid motion, Lydia leapt off the trap and into Stiles' arms. At the impact, Sophia felt herself being pushed out and pulled back - similar to what she had felt during what happened to her in her kitchen.

The Preserve suddenly shifted away from sight and reality came crashing back down around her. It felt like she was on a roller coaster, her stomach rolling with motion sickness. Sophia blinked a few times to try and get rid of the feeling - her chest rose and fell as she tried to get her breathing back to normal. Even though the Preserve had felt so realistic, her body had never actually left her bedroom.

A thin layer of sweat covered Sophia's body as she pulled her knees to her chest. Pressing her cheek to her knee, she let out a shaky breath. She couldn't understand what had just happened to her or why it kept happening to her. There was a beat where Sophia was still and quiet - her mind going a mile a minute. If only she was still friends with Scott and Stiles, if only she still had their numbers, she could be in contact with them and ask them if her visions were actually happening or if they were simply visions. At least then she could react appropriately and take the necessary steps to fix herself. But she wasn't friends with them so she was all alone.

She quickly reached over to get her phone from her nightstand. Scrolling through her contacts, Sophia landed on Kira's name and tapped through in order to call the new girl.

"Hi." Sophia said, voice a bit breathless as Kira answered the phone, "Can I come over?" She asked. Sophia didn't want to be alone anymore. She needed someone to be around her in case what happened to her happened again; if someone saw it happen, then maybe they could help her figure out what the hell was going on.

* * *

Before she moved to Beacon Hills, Kira had friends - plenty of them. Then, all of a sudden, her family up and moved them across the country. Her parents claimed that it was because her dad had gotten a job offer at the high school, but Kira couldn't understand how it was better than what he had. But she had no choice; she had to move. Had to uproot her whole life, leave her friends behind and basically start over. Kira thought that it would be temporary, that they would move back home after her dad realized that the job wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Yet months passed and it became clear that the move was permanent.

Kira didn't know why it was so hard for her to make friends. Back in New York she was a pretty popular girl, but as soon as they moved, it was like she had lost all of her cool. Every time she tried to make a friend she ended up saying something stupid or weird and left her feeling like a major dork. Maybe she had waited too long or something, but either way, Kira didn't know how to fix it.

Which was why she was grateful when Sophia McBride had actually made an effort to be friends with her. She wasn't thrown off by Kira's weird ramblings or actions. In fact, she seemed sort of amused by it and acted like she wanted to impress Kira - like she needed a friend just as badly as Kira needed one.

So Kira welcomed Sophia into her home with an excited grin. Sophia reacted with a smile of her own, stepping through the front doorway.

"Hi!" Kira greeted her new friend. Sophia raised her shoulders up as she turned around to look at Kira,

"Hi." Sophia said with a slight smile, "Thanks for letting me come over."

"Oh, yeah!" Kira bobbed her head in a nod, "No, yeah of course, any time."

As Kira rambled to Sophia, Noshiko Yukimura stepped out from around the corner. She had heard the doorbell ring and wanted to see who was visiting. Instead of a delivery man or a salesperson, there was a teenage girl standing in front of Kira. Noshiko crossed her arms over her chest, taking a small step forward as the girl turned around - Kira falling into step next to her friend.

At the sight of the girl, Noshiko felt her breath catch. The teenage girl looked exactly like someone Noshiko had known while in the internment camp – she was one of the nurses who had been instrumental in helping with Rhys. Even though Noshiko knew there was no way she survived after what she did to seal Rhys' fate, she couldn't stop her name from forming on her lips.

"Evel–"

"Mom, this is Sophia." Kira spoke over her mom, neither one of the girls realizing Noshiko had spoken. Kira gestured to the teenager next to her who turned to look at Noshiko with a warm smile.

"Hi!" Sophia warmly said, stepping forward and sticking a hand out, "Nice to meet you."

Noshiko forced a smile on her face, hoping it was enough to hide the pain behind her eyes as she stepped up to meet Sophia. Her gut was right – there was no way Evelyn had survived that night, but she still wondered how the teenager looked like a mirror image of her friend.

* * *

 _A/N: Any questions, comments or cries of outrage?_


	6. the peace and the panic

The news was playing in the kitchen as Sophia entered. Her mother was intently paying attention to the reporter causing Sophia to become interested in whatever event had happened the day before. As Sophia filled up her massive travel mug with coffee, she half listened to the story; she had come in towards the end of it.

"...Malia Tate has been reunited with her father..." Sophia looked over at the name, seeing a picture of a girl around Sophia's age come up on the side of the screen.

"Wait, they found her?" Sophia asked over to reporter's closing remarks. Her mother turned to look at her, nodding with a warm smile.

"Yeah, honey, they did." Her mother looked teary eyed, "Something short of a miracle, if we're being honest." Sophia gave her mother a tight smile and nodded. "Come on, we have to get going." Her mother gestured for Sophia to move along, "If you want to talk about it, you can stop by my office." Her mother offered as Sophia tried to wrap her head around the fact that Malia was alive and well.

She, along with the rest of the town, had accepted that Malia had been dragged off and killed by coyotes. But during the car ride to school, Sophia checked her phone to see that the story that Malia had been found, unharmed, broke across all of the networks earlier that morning. Her mother was right, it was nothing short of a miracle.

The news hadn't reached the school yet and even if it did, no one cared. It was Mischief Night, which meant the school was chaotic with people throwing toilet paper, spraying each other with silly string and playing pranks on each other throughout the day. Sophia shielded herself with her hands as a classmate sprayed her with silly string, grinning at her laugh before running away to attack another person.

Laughing to herself, Sophia walked through the hallway, dodging some of the pranksters and the flying objects. With everything going on, Sophia had almost forgotten about Mischief Night and Halloween, especially Danny's Halloween party. Luckily, he was waiting at her locker to remind her. He gave her all the details of the party: when and where, how long it was going to be, who was expected to show up, etc. etc.

"You sure you don't want me to chip in for some of the supplies?" Danny asked her, shifting his weight against the locker he was leaning against.

"I've got it covered." Sophia assured him, even though she had yet to go shopping yet. It would have to be something she did after school. She silently cursed herself for putting it off for so long and hoped there would still be paints available.

"Thank you, Sophia, seriously. Wouldn't be a paint party without you." Danny grinned at her and Sophia lifted the corner of her mouth up in a half smile at the compliment.

Before Sophia could say anything, Danny pushed off of the locker and quickly sprayed her with some silly string he had been hiding. Sophia let out a startled yelp that dissipated into an amused laugh as she cleared it from her eyes.

"See ya, Sophia." Danny winked at her before walking away, picking up his pace to attack someone else with his silly string. Sophia rolled her eyes and laughed as she watched him go.

Danny's silly string attack was a direct hit and Sophia figured getting the stuff out of her hair and face was more important than her first period. She ducked into the girls' bathroom, ignoring the first bell and dropping her backpack to the floor by the sinks. Stepping up to the sink, Sophia started to pull out the chunks of silly string from her hair.

Since she had worn her hair up in a messy bun, it wasn't that hard, but there was still a lot of it. She plucked it from her shirt collar and tights, seeing that some of it had even gotten onto her flats. Sophia made a noise of semi disgust as she flicked her hands off, trying to get the silly string into the sink or trash can. She wasn't annoyed at what had happened - Mischief Night had always been one of her favorite days, and Halloween was one of her favorite holidays. It had just been a while since she had done anything to celebrate either.

As she finished cleaning herself up, Sophia heard Stiles' voice coming from out in the hall. She reached for a few paper towels and started for the door. Slowly, Sophia pulled open the bathroom door, peering out through the small crack. The hallway was empty - everyone was in their respective first periods. There was no sign of Stiles.

Making an annoyed noise to herself, Sophia stepped away from the door, letting it shut. The bathroom was right next to a classroom - maybe Stiles was in the room next door and she was just hearing him answer a question. Sophia gathered up her things and walked out of the bathroom, hearing Stiles' voice again,

" _I'm helping you."_

Sophia's brow furrowed as she spun around; it sounded like Stiles was right behind her. But there was nothing but empty hallway that was littered with the leftovers of the morning celebrations.

" _We have a common enemy."_

There it was again. Sophia turned the other way, noticing _how_ Stiles' voice sounded. Cold, emotionless, and sort of threatening. A shiver went up Sophia's spine and she tried to shake off the feeling. Taking in a breath, Sophia felt her bun move with her head as she shook it back and forth. She was just imagining it - the day of the year was making her think of something scary.

* * *

The day seemed to keep on theme with the slightly terrifying things happening; after her lunch period, which was spent in the library because she didn't feel like hanging out with Mallory's friends, Mallory grabbed her in the hallway.

"Did you hear about the lockdown?" She made her eyes wide as the two walked through the buzzing hallways.

"No, what?" Sophia's brow furrowed as she looked around to see other students were crowding up, talking closely and looked unnerved.

"Apparently there was this guy, Barrow, I think?" Mallory's brow furrowed, "Anyway, a few years ago he killed a bunch of kids and he escaped the hospital and the cops think he's _here_."

"Holy shit." Sophia breathed out, feeling her anxiety flare up, "Wait, do you mean Barrow as in the Sharpnel Bomber dude who blew up that bus of kids because they had _glowing eyes?"_

"Yeah, maybe, I don't know the whole story." Mallory was obviously unfazed by it all. If anything, it got her a few more free periods, but Sophia was beginning to tense up at the thought of a bomber in their school.

"I should go find my mom." Sophia nodded quickly and Mallory slipped her arm from where it was linked through Sophia's, "Make sure she's okay."

"Okay, yeah." Mallory nodded, "Hey, don't worry, okay?" She reached out to her, "The cops are already here, they don't think he's _in_ the school. Just around here." Sophia nodded, knowing Mallory was just trying to calm her down a bit. "And we both know we're too pretty to die." She threw a wink in Sophia's direction before spinning around and bouncing off to meet up with her actual friends. Sophia let out a sad laugh as a late reaction to Mallory's joke before turning and hurrying to the guidance office.

The door to her mother's office was locked and the shade was down. Sophia leaned her ear against the door and tried to hear if there was anyone in there, but she couldn't hear anything but muffled movement. Her brow furrowed and Sophia tried to door handle again, almost as if in the moment that had passed, it had become magically unlocked. It hadn't.

Sighing, Sophia turned around and surveyed the students that were still milling around. They all looked as unfazed as Mallory had. It seemed like the lockdown was just a precaution, like there was nothing to actually freak out about. Maybe it wasn't that big of a deal, but Sophia still felt a small knot of anxiety form as she thought about Barrow being in or around their school. The story had made it's circulation around town, even though it didn't happen in Beacon Hills.

The man was an electrical engineer, a crazy one at that, who placed a bomb disguised as a present on a bus full of kids. It went off, killed four and injured one. Stuff like that always made Sophia's stomach roll in disgust and anxiety; she started wondering what she would do in a situation like that. Probably just give up and die. And every time something like that happened in Beacon Hills: the Hale fire, the murder in the Hale house, her classmate Matt and his serial killing, Ms. Blake … all of it caused so much anxiety in Sophia. She couldn't handle another situation like that.

Needing to calm herself down, Sophia went into the art room. It was empty during her last period and Sophia was grateful for the silence. She settled down at her easel, letting her bag drop to the ground as she tightened her bun a bit. The charcoal was on the smaller table next to her and Sophia let it roll around in between her fingers before she pressed it to the paper. Her mind drifted as the charcoal made strokes against the paper.

Even though a few days had passed since Sophia's latest vision or hallucination or whatever the hell it was, she still never talked to Scott or Stiles about it. In the moment, she wanted to know what was happening to her, how they were involved and the steps to make it stop. But she hadn't had one since hanging out with Kira. Her dreams had been nothing but a confusing mess, which was what they usually were. Sure Stiles and Scott frequented them, but not in a weird or sexual way. Things had been getting back to normal - until Barrow had been spotted around the high school.

The art room door clattered open, startling Sophia and making her look up at the hurried entrance of Stiles and Lydia. At the sight of her, they paused just as fast as they came in. Sophia swallowed and ducked her head down, trying to appear small and non threatening. Quickly, she gathered up her things, not wanting to stick around to get interrogated by Stiles, which she knew he would do - even though she had a perfectly good reason for being in the studio.

"I was just leaving." Sophia hurriedly said, not knowing what was going on or why they were together or really anything, but understanding fully that she was not in the position to have any of the answers.

Stiles squinted at her, following her movement as she walked up to them. He had that look in his eye, the one where he was trying to figure something out - Sophia had seen it many times when they were kids and would play guessing games. But Lydia barely glanced at her, instead, looking around the room like she was looking for something specific.

As Sophia went to walk past them, Stiles moved to the easel she was working on, wanting to see what she had been drawing. Sophia left it there, forgetting to tear it off in the process of trying to get out as fast as possible. But at the sound of tearing paper, Sophia turned around to see Stiles holding up the paper, keeping what Sophia had drawn facing him.

"What is it?" Lydia asked, stepping forward a bit.

"It's nothing." Sophia pushed past Lydia, reaching out to rip the paper from Stiles' hand. She didn't even bother to look at it, crumpling it up in her hand, "Just a stupid drawing." Her eyes flitted from Lydia to Stiles as she mumbled a lame excuse. Stiles was still looking at her like he was trying to figure something out.

"I'll go now." Sophia ducked her head down, feeling embarrassed. She took two steps back, avoiding looking back up at Stiles and Lydia before turning and hurrying out of the art room. She let the door close behind her and rested against the wall next to the door.

Letting out a slow breath, Sophia tried to calm herself down. For some reason, she felt caught. Like she had been doing something wrong and not just drawing a...Sophia uncrumbled the paper to see a box wrapped up like a present, bow included, neatly drawn out in the center of the page with the words " _Happy Birthday Coach"_ written out above in in her loopy script. Not understanding it, Sophia tossed it into the trash can and started down the hallway.

Before she knew it, Sophia found herself in front of the Chemistry lab. She couldn't come with a reason as to why she ended up there, but it didn't stop her from going into the room. The room was empty but there were three different numbers written on the board.

Sophia walked towards the chalkboard, trying to figure out what the numbers meant. She studied them for a moment before pulling out one of her notebooks. Jotting down the numbers, Sophia looked up and around the room, feeling like they meant _something_ she just couldn't figure out _what._

Then, she spotted the large periodic table hanging above the chalkboard. The numbers represented different element. A feeling of pride swelled inside of Sophia, only because she had semi figured it out. She wrote down the corresponding element and symbol underneath the number, not even aware that some of the elements were that atomic number or symbol.

"Potassium, Iodine, Radium." Sophia whispered to herself. She wasn't smart in the sciences or maths or really anything but it still didn't stop her from trying to figure out the formula.

Double checking the numbers against the table, Sophia made sure she had the formula correct. The numbers she wrote down were the same ones on the board. Sophia used her phone for some help, coming up with the fact that Potassium and Iodine could work together. And yet, there was no formula that those three could make. Feeling frustrated, Sophia stepped away from her notebook, looking back at the numbers. They looked awfully familiar, but it might have just been because she had been staring at them for a bit - like what happens when you write a word over and over again and it starts to look wrong.

The fire alarm started to blare, causing Sophia to look up and away from the board. She gathered her things up, shoving her notebook into her backpack and went out of the classroom, not noticing that Barrow was watching her from the Chemistry closet.

Sophia filed out of the school along with the rest of the student body. It was already three and most of the students just started to head for their cars. Sophia looked around to see her mother was coming out of the school, talking with Mrs. Martin about something or other. Feeling relief wash over her at the sight of her mother, Sophia started towards her. She kept her head down, avoiding Stiles and Scott and their ever expanding group of friends - which now included the new twins, one that Danny had been hooking up with for a while.

"Hi, honey." Sophia's mother greeted her as Mrs. Martin walked away from her, "How was your day?" Sophia reacted quite visibily, making a face and gesturing to what was going on around her,

"Uh, not great." Sophia looked back at her mother, "Did you not hear about the lockdown?"

"I did." Helen nodded as she began their walk back to the car, "I'm sorry I wasn't around to talk to you about it. I was in a meeting all afternoon with Natalie Martin and the principal discussing Mrs. Martin's new position." Sophia briefly reacted to that, but decided to continue on with the bigger issue at hand.

"Mom, Barrow was here, okay? A supposed bomber was here."

"No, he was spotted around here. Sheriff Stilinski put the school on lockdown just in case he came back." Helen looked to her daughter, trying to calm her down. There was no reason Sophia needed to get so worked up about nothing.

The sheriff and Agent McCall had discussed Barrow with the faculty during the morning when he first escaped his surgery. It was just a tip that had led them to the school, not a sighting. The sheriff's department had the situation under control and needed the faculty to keep the students calm - act like nothing was going on until they found Barrow. But once a different sighting came in, the sheriff's department left a few men to patrol the school while others were sent out. There had been no sign of Barrow for the rest of the afternoon. The lockdown was lifted at three and the students were free to go.

Helen relayed all of this information to Sophia during their drive home. In turn, Sophia opened up about how the situation made her feel - to her mother's satisfaction. Once the McBride women arrived home, Sophia asked if she could use the car to pick up some body paints for Danny's Halloween party. Helen agreed, but told Sophia that she had to wait until after dinner. Not sure why since they never made a big deal out of dinner, Sophia was confused when the doorbell rang with supposed dinner guests.

"Mr. Tate." Sophia's brow furrowed as she saw Mr. Tate on their stoop. Confusion turned to surprise when her gaze flicked over to see Malia standing next to Mr. Tate. She looked uncomfortable, was shivering despite the jacket she had on and her eyes kept darting around like she was aware of something Sophia wasn't.

"Holy shit, it's really you." Sophia breathed out at the sight of an old quasi friend. Malia's eyes flicked over to meet Sophia's and her eyes widened slightly before her brow furrowed like she was trying to place Sophia.

"Malia, you remember Sophia, right?" At the sound of Sophia's name, Malia's features softened. A small, relieved smile came over Sophia's face at Malia's reaction. Sophia couldn't help herself, feeling overcome with emotion and having a friend again, that she stepped forward and pulled Malia into her arms in a tight hug. She let out a small laugh of relief at the solidness she felt; it was real. She was real. It took Malia a second to respond, slowly putting her arms around Sophia.

"Oh, good, you're here!" Hearing her mother's voice, Sophia stepped out of the hug. Her mother stepped up to the side of the door, "Well, don't just stand out there, come in, come in." Her mother gestured for Mr. Tate and Malia to come into the house and Sophia stepped to the side to let them in. As Malia passed her, her hand went out to grab Sophia's. She squeezed it tightly, so tightly, Sophia thought her hand was going to break. But her skin was cold and when Sophia looked up at Malia, she was met with a worried look.

"It's ok." Sophia reassured her, "Helen's cooking has improved greatly over the last eight years." Sophia tried to make a joke, trigger a memory and get Malia to stop looking like that. Malia nodded at her, letting out a shaky breath as her gaze shifted from Sophia to her father. And Sophia realized it wasn't worry in Malia's eyes, but guilt.

* * *

Dinner wasn't some big event in the McBride household and it was no different when Malia and her father were at the table. Just two extra bodies, but it was clear Sophia's mother was trying to do something nice for a former friend of the family. Sophia made sure to stay away from topics like Barrow or what happened eight years ago. Instead, all of them caught up and a very shallow dinner conversation. There was no mention of how Malia miraculously reappeared or where she was for the past eight years - and Sophia was sure she would never know; the girls were never _that_ close. They had relied on their mothers for their friendship and obviously that had changed over the years.

But Sophia still wanted to try and be Malia's friend. So after dinner, Sophia made a promise to herself that she would reach out again to Malia, make an effort instead of just waiting for something to happen. The same thing she had been doing with Kira and it seemed to be working.

Once the Tates left, Sophia took the car to the local art store. She frequented the place so often, the owners knew her face and name. They were happy to help her find the specific body paints she wanted, giving her the exact colors that would look best under the UV lights. Even if Sophia wasn't good at science, she knew how colors worked under different lights and knew there was a specific chemical needed so that the designs would glow or not. Phosphors, they were called.

Using her backpack as her purse, Sophia dug around for her wallet. It was at the bottom of her backpack so Sophia took out a few things to make it easier to get to her money. She set the few notebooks on the counter, giving an apologetic smile to the cashier. Trying not to feel self conscious about taking so long to find her wallet, Sophia dug around her bag until her hand hit the wallet. She quickly handed over a few crumpled up bills, knowing it was enough before stuffing her things back into her bag. In her rush, she knocked over one of her notebooks and it fell open to the page where she had been jotting down the numbers from the Chemistry lab.

Crouching down, Sophia picked it up and studied it again as she stood up straight. She slipped her backpack back over her shoulders and then grabbed her bag of supplies. Glancing up for a quick second to bid thanks and goodbye to the cashier, Sophia walked out of the art store and to her car. She got into the driver's seat, tossing her things onto the passenger seat and starting the car up. The numbers still didn't make any sense to her and even as she drove away from the store, she found herself making turns to get to the school.

Not knowing what she would find, but just wanting to figure it out, Sophia went into the school, knowing there was no night security and there was almost always one door unlocked. She hurried up to the Chemistry lab to see that the lights were off and it was just as empty as before. Sophia flicked the lights on, letting the chalkboard become easier to see as she walked towards it. The numbers were still on the board, still looking just as familiar. She knew that handwriting, she _knew_ it.

Rubbing her hand over her mouth, Sophia let her backpack drop onto one of the lab tables and went rummaging through it. She compared her handwriting to the numbers, knowing it wasn't her, but just wanting to make sure. Then she went into her folders, pulling out her peer reviewed quizzes and such. She held up the papers to the board, checking the numbers against the grades. There was a growing pile of "unmatched" ones before she landed on one that matched up with the eight and the nine. Her paper was from her History class and signed with _SS_ \- Stiles' initials.

"Of course." Sophia dejectedly sighed out; there was no way she was going to get any answers now.

But before Sophia could linger on it any longer, the lights suddenly went out - plunging her into darkness.

* * *

 _A/N: Let me know your thoughts please!_


End file.
